Life

Ford Ironman Cozumel Coverage: Call Me Doctor

Dr. Amanda Stevens is racing here in Mexico at Ford Ironman Cozumel. The 33-year-old from Colorado Springs who now calls Oklahoma her home, is making her first appearance at an Ironman distance race on Sunday.

Stevens started the 2010 race year with two second-place showings at Ironman 70.3 distance races and then was forced into some mid-season couch time after abdominal surgery. The timing was good (if recovery from surgery can ever be considered good) as she had her summer wedding to plan.

With the recovery and her wedding behind her, Stevens resumed training and racing in July. With a solid finish in a deep field at Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens, the sports medicine doctor knew she was back. She went on to win her first Ironman 70.3 race in Cancun and capped her 70.3 season with a fourth-place finish at the Foster Grant Ironman 70.3 World Championships earlier this month. It was her third consecutive top-10 finish at the championship.

Stevens sat down with IronmanLIVE and talked about her season, as well as what led her to her first Ironman start in Cozumel.

IronmanLIVE: You have are a medical doctor, specializing in sports medicine. Do you currently have a practice?

Amanda Stevens: I am currently not practicing as a physician. It was a hard decision, but I decided to focus 100% on my triathlon career right now. I think there is a small window of time that I can compete at this level and I have my entire life ahead of me to be a doctor. I would much rather give myself the opportunity to realize my full potential, and not have any regrets, than try to juggle too many things at once. As an athlete, I am gaining invaluable experiences that will help me treat and relate to patients. When the time is right, I will shift gears to devote 100% to medicine.

IronmanLIVE: You started the year strong, then surgery, then your win at Cancun, now a fourth in the 70.3 Champs. You could have done without the surgery, but in some way has the surgery played a role in your late season success?

Amanda Stevens: What a year this has been. The year started great with second-place finishes at Ironman 70.3s Galveston and Florida. One week after the race in Florida, I was out on a run and had my first gallbladder attack: extremely painful. It took me forever to walk, jog, hobble back home, and by that time I had diagnosed myself and pretty much knew surgery was inevitable.

Over the next two weeks I saw a few different specialists to cover the bases and make sure surgery was the right choice. During those two weeks, I attempted to keep training and I tried to talk myself out of my diagnosis, I mean who wants to undergo surgery. And, from what I’ve heard, doctors make the worst patients … I guess I was trying to be a prime example But after two weeks of constant pain, having trouble eating and not being able to train, I knew surgery was the right decision. I had my gallbladder removed and then got married three weeks later. Surgery ended up being a blessing in disguise as I got to do some extra wedding planning and spend time with my parents before the wedding, since I wasn’t training. With our wedding and surgery, my coach, Lance Watson, and I looked at it as an extra-long extended mid-season break.

Once I was cleared to start training again, it was time to get to work and I dove right in. I went to Penticton, Canada for a training camp and did some training on the Ironman Canada course. What an amazing course and so inspiring. I started to regain fitness and decided to race in Lake Stevens since I was in the area.

I had a solid race Lake Stevens, but it was also an eye-opener in that I still had a lot of work to do! We readjusted my race schedule and focused on getting me back strong and ready to race. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and I think taking that attitude helped me face the challenges of surgery and recovery. Lying in bed for weeks also gave me a chance to visualize and focus on the mental aspects of racing like never before. I feel like I came back rejuvenated and more confident and that has definitely had an impact on my last few races.

IronmanLIVE: When you won the Ironman 70.3 Cancun race, was that expected, did your fitness give you any indication that would be the outcome?

Amanda Stevens: Lance Watson, my coach, and I picked Cancun 70.3 as a chance for me to race in hot, humid conditions that would be similar to Ironman Cozumel. I went to the race coming off a great block of training and was confident in my preparations. I did a lot of heat acclimatization sessions and my fitness was continually improving. I was excited to go race some of the top girls in the sport and gauge where I was. I knew if I went out and performed to my potential a good result was possible.

IronmanLIVE: This is your first attempt at an Ironman. Was Ironman inevitable, was it planned that you would eventually hit this distance, or was the decision made because of your 70.3 distance success?

Amanda Stevens: Oh, Ironman. When I started racing, I immediately got into ITU circuit and I thought Ironman athletes were crazy. In 2008, I did an ITU race in Villarrica, Chile, which is about 30miles from Pucon. The week before our race, they had had the Ironman 70.3 Pucon and I remember saying I would never do that distance. Never say never, because in 2009 I was in Pucon racing.

Once I started racing the 70.3’s though, I really enjoyed it and think it played to my strengths well. My husband, Randy, raced at Ironman Louisville in 2009 and it was my first time to witness a full Ironman in person. We left the race and I said I would never do an Ironman, it just looked way too painful. You would think I had learned by lesson about saying never, because here I am getting ready to race my first one: Ironman Cozumel.

I had originally planned to race Ironman Canada this summer, but with my surgery and all, that flew out the window. When we were in Cozumel for our wedding at the end of June, I jokingly said, we should came back in November for the Ironman. Then as we reconstructed my race schedule, it actually was the perfect fit.

Never say never, right?

You can follow Amanda Stevens and the entire Ford Ironman Cozumel race on Ironman.com on Sunday. Watch for our text updates of the action on the course as well as race photos and our Athlete Tracker.